Why These Two Women Started Mind Mandala — An Organisation Redefining Indian Therapy

Although Indians celebrated World Mental Health Day this month, we still have a problem addressing mental health. The stigma and taboo surrounding mental illnesses and other, more universally felt issues like stress and self-care is systemic and deep rooted in our society. Wheneducational institutions fail to give the average person background on mental health, they contribute to the taboo culture of mental illness and health, so approaching a mental health professional is seen as a drastic step, as a last resort. While we expect mental health professionals like psychologists, psychiatrists, and counsellors to be experts on dealing with mental illness, two mental health professionals explained that that’s not always the case.

“We were never taught how to practically apply the theories we learnt in class... Nobody taught us how to speak to clients and patients,” says Janki Mehta, a co-partner at Mind Mandala, an organisation devoted to spreading psych-based training and providing consultations, testing, counseling, seminars, and workshops related to mental health. After earning a Masters in Career and Developmental Counseling, Janki reflected and saw that her only practical experience with patients was limited to an internship in a counselling center during which she learnt how to take case histories and comfort patients. When a profession so closely focused on needing to have difficult conversations with patients and families lacks a practical training element, the state of our education system is concerning.

Janki said that she and her co-partner, Havovi Hyderabadwalla, who has a Masters in Forensic Psychology Studies and in Clinical Psychology, believe that the system isn’t as black and white as textbooks preach. Janki said that working with patients in real life is operating in a grey zone and that the education system for mental health professionals is “sterile.” “It’s very a equals b and b equals c. But, when you step into the real world, you realise there are tons of things that affect a, b, and c,” says Janki perceptively.

These two women believe that India needs to redefine how education on mental health is imparted. But, because the problem runs so deep, they’re doing their part by running Mind Mandala, an organisation that takes a more holistic and individualistic approach to therapy. After having conducted their own research on how best to tailor therapy techniques for each client, they started Mind Mandala in 2014. “We wanted to go beyond mental ailment and look at the individual. For us, the entire individual is more important than their illnesses or ailments or behaviours,” says Janki, who wants people to think of therapy as a way to live a healthier life, not as a dramatic last resort.

Janki says that Mind Mandala understands each client’s needs. “A child with ADHD may not initially gain anything from yoga, so we would suggest something else to them. People cope differently and we want our therapy to have those different perspectives,” she says. Their process is simple: after about six to eight sessions, they evaluate how often a client needs to attend therapy, be it every week, once in two weeks, or once every month.

Janki tells me that Indian society is unique in how closely knit families are. Referring to joint families, regressive attitudes perpetuated by conservative relatives, and patriarchy within the family itself, Janki and Havovi use how Indian society functions to help their clients. “We maintain complete confidentiality with the client and don’t discuss anything with their families unless we’re concerned about self harm, suicide, or physical or sexual abuse,” she says. Janki says that Indian society is very concerned with log kya kahege (what will people say), a mindset that creates anxiety for the family focused on how a girl child will marry or how a boy child will earn his livelihood if other people find out that they suffer from mental health issues. “These are undertones that no one talks about,” she says.

What’s unique about Mind Mandala is that Janki and Havovi are both arts students who are well versed with psychotherapy from a biological, social, cultural, and political standpoints. Their therapy recommendations are informed by the intersectional knowledge they’ve gained over the years. Their organisation promotes a lifestyle-oriented therapy, which means that their work is not limited to textbook principles alone– they include incorporating lifestyle changes, that allow medications, medical theory, and other methods to work to the best of their ability.

Janki and Havovi want to build Mind Mandala and encourage people to seek therapy as regularly as possible, without being concerned about a mental illness. These two women want to be confidantes for young people who they know are under immense pressure from teachers, tutors, and family members, and create the change that institutions fail to do.

Feature image by: Mind Mandala

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